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A medical worker administers a dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine at a mass vaccination site in Tokyo. Image: Pool via AP/File
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Over 70% fully vaccinated in Japan; among top 3 in G7

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So why can't we come and go as we please across the border?

29 ( +43 / -14 )

France 74,35 % of the population full vaccinated.

Canada 73,82%

Italy 71,01

I am not sure for UK

So japan is maximum top 4, not top 3

18 ( +26 / -8 )

Yeah, let's take only G7 countries as comparison.

Otherwise Japan would be 26th behing Korea, Spain, Portugal, Chile, Denmark, Belgium, Ireland, Cambodia ...

16 ( +40 / -24 )

Hopefully this - indeed a major recovery of efficiency and dignity for Japan - will have a positive impact on the current border and quarantine policies; since the switch for fully vaccinated returnees from the previous 2 pcr tests and 14 days home (without any interest in whether one is vaccinated or not) to 3 pcr tests and 10 days home (only if fully vaccinated) is not exactly a life changer, nor in any way scientifically justified.

15 ( +20 / -5 )

The majority of the population of Japan deserves credit.

As for the passengers…

12 ( +29 / -17 )

Whether you have the jab or not, Japan deserves some kudos for getting to this point without real lockdowns or excessive authoritarian measures like the jab-for-job mandates and the like some countries and their cheerleaders seem to prefer.

9 ( +26 / -17 )

The comparisons are incorrect. What must be compared is vaccination by age group.

A lot of the countries with lower vaccination rates have a lot more children as a percentage of total population.

Some of these countries (such as France) have 90% of adults vaccinated, and this is what really matters.

8 ( +18 / -10 )

Italy and not Japan is the country to take as a role model.

With a population of over 60 milions people they had and still have a high test rate unlike Japan and unlike most western nations they are containing the pandemic with great skills.

Very organized and well done.

7 ( +18 / -11 )

Nobody is bragging here, just stating the facts. Who cares if Japan is third or fourth.

6 ( +12 / -6 )

Over 70% fully vaccinated in Japan; among top 3 in G7

I don’t really see what giving wrong informations really helps for besides silly propaganda and nationalism. it’s certainly not among top 3 in G7.

France had vaccinated 74.4% of its population and 86.5% of the population aged more than 12 years old. UK has fully vaccinated 79.9% of its population.

https://covidtracker.fr/vaccintracker/

https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/

5 ( +19 / -14 )

So why can't we come and go as we please across the border?

because it is all a puppet show.

4 ( +24 / -20 )

Because 3rd looks much nicer than 26th... Makes Japanese proud of themselves and give themselves a pad on the back. Irritating fact like 26th would disappoint many and make them feel inferior...

4 ( +11 / -7 )

A slow start but reasonably efficient system to get the public safely protected. I'd give them a solid 8 out of 10.

3 ( +28 / -25 )

Wonder why? 30% of the population still choosing to go without. That's not a small amount, now, is it?

Younger people have been vaccinated much later than older people. Most younger people would be vaccinated soon or later. It seems to me over 80% would be fully vaccinated until end of this year.

3 ( +4 / -1 )

I didn't think I'd say that any time soon, but I'm glad to be in Japan. Although, as others have pointed out, the figures are a bit misleading and playing, yet again, into the country's nationalist narrative, it's great the rollout hasn't been stifled by millions of people with internet-assembled wisdom. My European old country has a rate below 60% despite the vaccine being available to pretty much every one for months. It's one of the countries with the highest death rates, cases have spiked again recently and new restrictions are coming. All completely preventable if people didn't need to "think for themselves" when clearly they have no idea.

3 ( +9 / -6 )

Time to travel to Japan?

Not yet….

2 ( +14 / -12 )

@falseflagsteve

Most people don’t need protection from Covid, check the average age of Covid death on Japan. 

People have been saying this since the pandemic started. Meanwhile, nearly 5 million people died so far. Yes, the death rate is low, but one person dead of a preventable disease is one too many.

If you have the vaccine protection why should you care if others choose not to?

Because the vaccine doesn't protect you 100%. Also, I might catch it with mild symptoms, perhaps thanks to the vaccine, and end up spreading it to people who genuinely can't get vaccinated because of their conditions. I know such people and the idea I'd give them the virus by way of someone with an "opinion" genuinely terrifies me.

 I would imagine by now a large amount of Japan already have natural immunity.

Again, this has been repeated for almost a year now. Then another peak came. "Imagining" isn't good enough when human lives are at stake.

2 ( +8 / -6 )

Thankfully Japan has kept the vaccine voluntary. However will there be compensation in cases of vaccine injury or death? After all, big pharma, the media and just about every single doctor claims 'It's safe!'

2 ( +7 / -5 )

Let's also mention we're only talking about the eligible population here ( 12 years old).

Hence it is normal countries with a younger population is less vaccinated.

A ranking of eligible vaccinated population would make more sense.

1 ( +19 / -18 )

daito_hakToday  05:39 pm JST

UK has fully vaccinated 79.9% of its population.

And just look where they are now: Heading for 100,000 positives a day.

So really, any claims of high vaccination rates equating to safety (Japan is safety) IS just propaganda to try and get everyone spending again, regardless of the realities.

1 ( +7 / -6 )

Thankfully Japan has kept the vaccine voluntary. However will there be compensation in cases of vaccine injury or death? After all, big pharma, the media and just about every single doctor claims 'It's safe!'

Because it is, in the sense of being hugely much safer than not vaccinating. Anybody that has put any attention would know that compensation is given without need for proof the vaccine is responsible for injury, it was even covered here.

three cheers to everyone who helped make pfizer's vaccine the most lucrative pharmaceutical drug of all time. it's thanks to your unyielding devotion to praying at the altar of science that gain of function researchers can rest assured knowing that BSL-4 labs are a profitable enterprise.

Fantasy based conspiracies that do not correspond to reality are not worth anything as criticism, a real danger for the health and life of people is the one pushing for many effective measures to reduce that risk, and no, BSL-4 laboratories are not related to the pandemic in any realisitic consideration.

Death is not preventable.

Yes, in the easily understandable meaning of specific situations where death is a risk, not in the obviously irrelevant meaning of living forever. You are invalidly trying to compare deaths under life-changing measures directed at keeping this specific risk low against deaths under normal circumstances. Japan has not suffered the worst case scenario from COVID thanks to strict compliance (by the population, not the goverment) of preventive measures, including vaccination. Saying that the result of keeping those measures is why those measures are unnecessary makes no sense.

1 ( +8 / -7 )

untrue what you state. The lower cases are by more people being masked. Social distancing was not carried out wheeler I went for sure.

This is just your personal opinion based on hearsay, to say it is untrue you need objective proof, do you have it? because if not you can't simply contradict what is being said by experts in communicable diseases about the pandemic in Japan.

The biggest reasons for the low deaths and serious deaths are he health of the average person and the Japanese normal behaviour.

But this would have absolutely no importance on the control of the number of cases, which has been very successful, and widely attributed to all the measures, including vaccination. It has been very clear that spreading in Japan can get out of control easily, so having a healthy population is not a reason why this was reversed, all the scientific based interventions for the control (including vaccines) are why this was achieved.

And having completely uncontrolled spreading means health services not able to deal with the number of people requiring hospitalizations, which would turn a lot of them into deaths, even if they were healthy before the infection.

1 ( +9 / -8 )

Does anyone else find it a bit sad and needy, that a group of people need to crow about the fact that their country is in the top three of seven countries? If Japan 'comes 26th' globally, is the country's pride wounded by being 'outdone' by places like Cambodia?

More to the point, are they going to vaccinate children here, or will those elementary schoolers be excluded from the statistics, and left as a reservoir to infect and reinfect each other and the adults in their lives? How does excluding younger children from programmes skew these numbers?

0 ( +13 / -13 )

UK data from three days ago shows 79.2% of the population age 12 or over has been vaccinated. This does not include the booster jab, which is given six months after the second dose.

0 ( +4 / -4 )

Does anyone else find it a bit sad and needy, that a group of people need to crow about the fact that their country is in the top three of seven countries?

This group of people is called Kisha club.

0 ( +6 / -6 )

I'm lucky to be in a country where anti-science fanatics have no power. I had the choice of going to either US or Japan. I'm glad I chose Japan.

0 ( +10 / -10 )

daito_hakToday  05:39 pm JST

UK has fully vaccinated 79.9% of its population.

And just look where they are now: Heading for 100,000 positives a day.

So really, any claims of high vaccination rates equating to safety (Japan is safety) IS just propaganda to try and get everyone spending again, regardless of the realities.

Thats the point, UK has a low vaccination rate and hence its current problems. UK vaccination rate is only 66.83%.

Why use real data when you can make it up off the top of your head.

Here is the current data on vaccines and infections in the UK. Please note infection and death numbers make little sense unless the testing numbers are given at the same time. Low testing = low data.

https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/

0 ( +4 / -4 )

Complete classless remark. No compassion for humans who have different ideas than yours. I prefer to live in a society with no discrimination. And yes, I am fully vaccinated before you assume.

Refusing to protect yourself and others against an airborne disease during a pandemic isn't "having a different idea". Knowingly threatening the health and life of others because of some "facts" found online doesn't show much compassion in my book. I have no interest in sharing any space with people who might give me a potentially lethal disease when they could have taken a very easy step to prevent that.

You can think that you're an amazing driver after a few drinks. Surely, that "opinion" surely doesn't minimise the risk you'd pose to others though.

0 ( +5 / -5 )

@falseflagsteve

Getting back to my driving analogy from earlier, by this logic there should be no rules and laws regulating driving because accidents happen anyway. We might as well just drink drive and skip red lights while choosing to only take the reasonable precaution of using a seatbelt.

The deaths in Japan have been 98% plus of those who would have been expected to pass away soon. 

That's a very confident statement of something that can't be proved. What does "expected to pass away soon" even mean? Would you say that to the loved ones of those who died?

0 ( +5 / -5 )

shimonToday  05:57 pm JST

France 74,35 % of the population full vaccinated.

Canada 73,82%

Italy 71,01

I am not sure for UK

So japan is maximum top 4, not top 3

Vaccinated ratio or Infected ratio/Death ratio matters?

-1 ( +4 / -5 )

gakinotsukaiToday  04:59 pm JST

Yeah, let's take only G7 countries as comparison.

Otherwise Japan would be 26th behing Korea, Spain, Portugal, Chile, Denmark, Belgium, Ireland, Cambodia ...

Yeah. This is vaccination Olympics, and you are entitled to feel better.

-1 ( +5 / -6 )

LudditeToday  07:43 pm JST

Why use real data when you can make it up off the top of your head.

Here is the current data on vaccines and infections in the UK. Please note infection and death numbers make little sense unless the testing numbers are given at the same time. Low testing = low data.

https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/

Why lie when you can use "Government statistics": Bit of an oxymoron, that.

Though I wholly believe the UK's statistics are far closer to the reality than The Japan ones, I look at the leadership of both, and faith suddenly becomes a huge leap.

The Japan figures of near 70% seems a little incredulous, but will no doubt do wonders for the end of year sales to boost the Govt. coffers.

Next wave booked for January, no doubt.

-1 ( +3 / -4 )

If the government’s figure is reliable, there are still 30 million people who are fully unvaccinated. That’s encouraging.

-2 ( +8 / -10 )

0rei0

daito_hakToday  05:39 pm JST

UK has fully vaccinated 79.9% of its population.

And just look where they are now: Heading for 100,000 positives a day.

So really, any claims of high vaccination rates equating to safety (Japan is safety) IS just propaganda to try and get everyone spending again, regardless of the realities.

Thats the point, UK has a low vaccination rate and hence its current problems. UK vaccination rate is only 66.83%.

-2 ( +5 / -7 )

@daito_hak  05:39 pm JST

I don’t really see what giving wrong informations really helps for besides silly propaganda and nationalism. it’s certainly not among top 3 in G7.

France had vaccinated 74.4% of its population and 86.5% of the population aged more than 12 years old. UK has fully vaccinated 79.9% of its population.

https://covidtracker.fr/vaccintracker/

https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/

Comparing eligible population (aged 12+) with total population (everybody) = "wrong informations"

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

t’s a bit cruel but that’s the working world to some extent, and I’m not elite. I’m reasonably capable but NASA aren’t going to be knocking on my door.

Its tough being a committed communist, and as always, and although it's proponents are losers in life in every way, I give full respect to one who walks the walk.

No possessions is one hell of a thing to actually follow through on.

-2 ( +7 / -9 )

Hmm...slowing down dramatically, no? A full month, and Japan adds what? An extra 5% to their tallies?

Wonder why? 30% of the population still choosing to go without. That's not a small amount, now, is it?

I'm sure they're just "unable" to get vaxxed. Yeah, that's it...

-3 ( +12 / -15 )

Whether you have the jab or not, Japan deserves some kudos for getting to this point without real lockdowns or excessive authoritarian measures like the jab-for-job mandates and the like some countries and their cheerleaders seem to prefer.

Japan’s, like many other Asian countries’, death rate from Covid hasn’t warranted stricter measures. Other countries with much higher death rates understandably took a different approach. To compare the approaches of countries with death rates like the UK with countries like South Korea seems a little off.

It is becoming very tiresome to read the useless one-size-fits-all ideas here. I think it’s a sign of a very weak argument.

As for the ‘jab-for-job’ idea, this could be a very good way of slimming down a workforce by getting rid of the chaff. My experience reading the views and considering their temperaments tell me they aren’t the best amongst us.

-3 ( +11 / -14 )

France is 67.71% and the UK is 66.83%, so yes, Japan has a higher vaccination rate than those nations.

https://ourworldindata.org/covid-vaccinations

-3 ( +6 / -9 )

Yotomaya

Death is not preventable. We take measures to protect ourselves, that includes not being morbidly obese and getting health problems caused by that. An unfortunate few become ill at a young age through no fault of ether own, they should be protected and paid if they need to shield.

The deaths in Japan have been 98% plus of those who would have been expected to pass away soon. All deaths are sad, yet it happens all the time, more die annually from pneumonia.

-3 ( +6 / -9 )

Sandip KatuwalToday  06:00 pm JST

who cares this country

You

-4 ( +3 / -7 )

That's a very confident statement of something that can't be proved. What does "expected to pass away soon" even mean? Would you say that to the loved ones of those who died?

In Canada and the US, the average age of a covid death is 86 with 3 or 4 comorbidities.

Considering Japanese overall health and life expectancy, I expect the avg age is even higher here.

And yes, the average covid death was expected to die sometime within the following year regardless.

This isn't about what you would say to loved ones.

Its about accepting the facts and reality.

We all got played. Some of us realized it long ago.

-4 ( +5 / -9 )

Thomas GoodtimeToday  07:43 pm JST

Of course in the UK and the US, nobody ever said (however many months ago) 'wow, our vaccination rate is higher than that of Japan'.

The reason why? They have better things to do and aren't massively self conscious.

It is KYODO which said that, not Japan. Hope an unhappy resident in Japan realize it.

-5 ( +5 / -10 )

Total population or total eligible population? Big difference in those stat numbers ne! Aloha

-6 ( +10 / -16 )

Yotomaya

Most people don’t need protection from Covid, check the average age of Covid death on Japan. Over 90% of non senior fatalities are from obese or obesity related conditions. If you have the vaccine protection why should you care if others choose not to? For healthy non seniors Covid is hardly any issue, many don’t even know when they have it and if they have natural immunity works better and lasts longer than the vaccines. I would imagine by now a large amount of Japan already have natural immunity.

-7 ( +6 / -13 )

I’m speaking from my experience. I tend to find anti-vaxxers are not the best to choose from based on what they say and the temperaments they have.

I dunno. I think the bare minimum for a productive member of society is to be gainfully employed, a homeowner, a man who has created a family, and have the ability to drive a car by the time he's in his mid 40's.

But then thats just me..

-8 ( +5 / -13 )

Yotomaya

Yes, I would repeat what I say to anyone at anytime .

Virusrex

'untrue what you state. The lower cases are by more people being masked. Social distancing was not carried out wheeler I went for sure. The biggest reasons for the low deaths and serious deaths are he health of the average person and the Japanese normal behaviour. Japanese have low obesity rates of under 5% compared to over30% in the West and the population are far more active. We also know the Japanese are less touchy feely with friends and others. These are the main reasons, not any type of compliance.

bob

Great points, honest and truthful. I’m not ignoring the facts to please the sentimental and Lilly livered amongst us.

-8 ( +5 / -13 )

If the government’s figure is reliable, there are still 30 million people who are fully unvaccinated. That’s encouraging.

What are the benefits of having unvaccinated people in Japan?

-9 ( +8 / -17 )

Glad to see those who want vaccines are able to get them. We have had. I have less deaths on Japan compare to many countries so many will feel vaccines are not necessary for them. People should not be forced to vaccinate, it’s not a cure and does not prevent transmission.

Generally you will find those in poor health, usually obese and the elderly are the ones demanding things like Covid Passports. Many athletes and sportsmen don’t get vaccinated as they are in good health and are not afraid.

Many have been infected already and still pressured to be vaccinated although natural immunity lasts longer and is stronger. After 6 months the vaccine works 13 times less than natural immunity. After 6 months the Johnson jab is only 3% effective. The vaccines do work but are less effective than promised and the public were led to believe.

-10 ( +7 / -17 )

who cares this country

-13 ( +4 / -17 )

Well done Japan. Western nations should take notes.

-18 ( +19 / -37 )

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